State of Dreaming
by Fairydoll
Summary: What happens when a girl wakes up in Santa Carla with absolutely no memory of who she is and how she got there? And what happens when the Lost Boys inevitably find her?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi all! So, after having only published one chapter on here before, I decided I wanted to try again, and commit this time. I must warn you, this story will probably be sad, and may also be awkward to read at first. As you will soon find out, the main character has no idea who she is, and you as the reader will only know as much as she knows. I know it can kind of get repetitive for me to say "She" and "The girl" so much, but hopefully you can get used to it. Also, I know that not much happens in this chapter, and it might be slow for a bit before it picks up. Let me know if you like my writing style, or the story premise, or if you think that I shouldn't bother continuing. Otherwise, enjoy!**

"Mmmm…" The girl hummed as she slowly woke up and blinked open her eyes. She observed that it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and there were clouds in the sky.

Which was weird. Why could she see clouds? Was she outside? She was very confused. She tried to get oriented, and looked down to find that she was on a bench. How did she come to be on a bench? Where was she? She tried to piece these things together, thinking through everything she knew about her current situation. Her heart started to beat a little bit faster as she realized that she didn't know much. To her own shock, she realized that she didn't even know who she was.

What had happened to her to make her lose her memories and end up alone on a bench? The girl was very aware that something was wrong, but sitting on a bench doing nothing wouldn't get her anywhere. She stood up, and looked around. It appeared as though she was on a boardwalk, by the beach. "There's the ocean!" she thought, and she was proud for remembering what the ocean was, at the very least. She decided to start walking to try to get her bearings. Maybe people here knew her, and could help her out? There was a decent amount of people walking around the boardwalk that she could see, but they all seem involved in their own activities.

She decided her best bet would be trying to find a storeowner, because they might know if she was a local. She was very proud of this decision, as it meant she still retained some knowledge, even if she had no idea who she was. She walked for a few minutes, until she came upon a clothing shop. Before she entered, the girl looked down to make sure she was actually wearing clothing (she was), because for all she knew it had disappeared along with her memories. The shop smelled nice to her, like flowers (she remembered what flowers were!), and it was empty save for the young woman behind the counter.

Glad that there were no other people in the shop while she was in such a vulnerable state, the girl approached the young woman, who she guessed was the salesperson. Timidly, she spoke. "Um, hi. I was wondering if you knew who I was?"

The salesgirl tilted her head and blinked at her. "Should I know who you are?" she asked.

Dejected, the girl sighed. "No, but I was hoping you might. I can't seem to remember anything about myself, and I just woke up on a bench by the boardwalk. I was hoping I lived here and someone might know me?"

The salesgirl, whose nametag read "Nina", gave her a concerned look. "Have you been doing drugs?" She was suspicious, the girl realized.

"I don't… well, I don't know. But I don't think so. I don't think I was the type of person to do drugs. But then again, I have no idea what type of person I am. Are you sure you've never seen me before?" The girl questioned hopefully. She realized it was a bit absurd, but she had nothing to go off of.

Nina huffed, clearly annoyed. "Look, this is a very popular tourist destination, and a lot of people come through, so I don't make it a point to memorize every face I come across. Have you checked your pockets for any identifying information? Do you have a wallet?"

The girl lit up. She hadn't even thought to check if she had a wallet! She was glad to have picked someone as smart as Nina to talk to. Looking down, the girl realized she was wearing jeans. She reached her hands in both of her pockets. Her left pocket returned a tissue, and her right pocket had a folded up scrap of paper in it. She turned to Nina, excited, and said, "No, I don't have a wallet, but I have a piece of paper! Maybe it has something important on it!" She was hopeful as she unfolded it, but frowned as she read its contents. All it said was "I'm sorry", handwritten in black ink. Was it her handwriting? "Do you recognize this handwriting?" she asked Nina.

Nina was exasperated. Something was clearly wrong with this girl, especially because she kept asking Nina things that were impossible for her to answer. She sighed, trying to be patient with this girl who clearly had little grip on reality. "No, I'm sorry, I don't. I really can't help you. I wish I could, but I don't know you. If you would like to buy clothes, I could help you then. But otherwise, I can't help you."

The girl seemed to deflate a bit. She looked up at Nina with eyes that conveyed the emptiness she was feeling. "Well, thanks then. I guess… I guess I'll just keep walking." She turned to the door, but stopped. She realized she had never asked where she was. "Nina, wait! I never even asked, but where are we right now?"

Slightly fed up with the strange girl asking her odd questions, Nina just pointed to the brightly colored sign that faced her shop from the boardwalk. The girl followed where Nina was pointing, until she wound up in front of a large sign that read, "Santa Carla Boardwalk".

The girl repeated the words in her mind. "Santa Carla… Santa Carla… Do I know that? Am I from Santa Carla?" she wondered. She decided that even if she wasn't from here, she was here now. She added that fact to the very small list of things she knew for sure, which only made her feel upset. How could she know so little about what was going on? She needed to know more, and to do that, she decided to go back to the bench where she had first found herself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi! I'm not sure if anyone is reading, but here is Chapter 2! Also, the title is inspired by a Marina and the Diamonds song, in case you were curious. So, this second chapter is also sort of slow, but I feel like a little backstory before things get interesting never hurt anyone.**

As the girl found her way back to the bench where she had woken up, she felt frustration bubble up inside of her. Although the chances were slim that the first person she walked up to would know her, if what Nina had said were true, she was in trouble. She could tell that most of the people milling around the boardwalk were tourists, as they were having fun, but in a just-passing-through kind of way. She concluded that she was also probably a tourist, or at least not a local. But how had she gotten here? As she approached her bench, which she considered her current sole possession, she was relieved that no one else had come to inhabit it. She wasn't in the mood to deal with strangers while she was still a stranger to herself.

Sighing, the girl plopped onto the wooden bench, worn by age and the salty ocean air. She slowly ran her fingers over the various initials and words carved into the bench by previous passersby. She tried to run through her head for any memory of the life she must have had up until this point. To her annoyance, she could remember how to do menial tasks, like ride a bike, load a dishwasher, and even how to get the fitted bedsheet to not slip off the bed. She realized she must move around a lot in her sleep, if that last skill was so committed to her memory. In the distance, she heard a car horn honk. She tried to remember if she knew how to drive a car, but instead found herself wondering if she was even old enough to know how to drive in the first place. She had to assume that she had some sense of autonomy, if she had ended up alone in a strange place. She again found herself wondering why she was here.

Disheartened that her bench had inspired no great revelations about her situation, the girl decided to walk around the boardwalk to see if anything jogged her memory. If she had decided to come here alone, she thought, the place must have held some importance to her.

As she weaved her way through the crowds, the girl made a conscious effort to stare at everything she saw for a good few seconds, hoping that whatever she was seeing would mean something to her. She went through this process with several other benches (they were all painted different colors, and her bench was clearly not enough to help her), a few shops, and some food carts before she started to get close to all of the rides. After having a particularly intense stare-down with some seagulls eating crumbs off of the ground, the girl realized that more people were starting to walk around the boardwalk, and the sun was going down. She wondered what time it was, and absentmindedly lifted her right wrist up to her face to look at her watch. It took her a few moments to realize she was wearing a watch, but when she did, she was glad. She had no idea what time she had woken up today, but at least she could keep track of time from now on! Until she looked closely, and realized that the hands on the watch weren't moving.

She squinted at the watch, hoping that her sheer will would make it start working again, but she was disheartened as the face stayed stuck at 11:04. While she didn't know if it was stuck at AM or PM, she knew enough to tell that it was currently not 11:04 in the morning or night, at least where she was. She shivered involuntarily, partly out of the scariness of her situation, and partly out of the fact that the night was bringing with it a slightly cooler temperature. She realized that she had been standing in the middle of a crowd staring at her watch for quite a few minutes. She decided to resume the task of seeing everything on the boardwalk, even if it hadn't gotten her anywhere so far.

She walked around, taking in the various rollercoasters and rides and trying desperately to remember anything that could help her. To her continued frustration, she was a blank slate. She kept walking, until she got to the carousel. She stared at it just a little bit longer than everything else, mostly because she found the bright lights and colors comforting and cheerful. As the gravity of her situation started to sink in, the girl felt physically and mentally exhausted. She decided that she wanted to stay by the carousel, so she found a bench off to the side and sat down. She felt a bit guilty about leaving her old bench, but it hadn't helped her. She was then frightened by the fact that she felt guilty for a bench, because she was pretty sure that was not a normal reaction. "You need to figure something out soon," she thought to herself, realizing that along with no memory, she also had no money. Although she was surprisingly not hungry, she didn't really want to end up sleeping on the boardwalk, because although she seemed to have managed that for one night, she got the feeling that it was not the safest place to stay.

As she watched the carousel go around and around, she found her thoughts drifting away from the boardwalk. That was, until, she heard what sounded like several engines rumbling. "Can people drive on the boardwalk?" she wondered, amazed that anyone was able to get the crowds to part for them.

Looking up, she found the source of the sounds: four motorcycles, being driven by four guys who were clearly respected, or possibly feared, by the crowd.

 **As an apology for the first two chapters being more introductory, I decided to gift you with the introduction of the boys at the end of this chapter! Hopefully someone is reading this, and if you are, leave a review! Next chapter will be more exciting! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi all! New chapter! I'm introducing another location/set of people. I hope you like it! This took me a bit longer to write because I'm still trying to get the boys' voices down. So enjoy!**

Elsewhere

A man and a woman stand in a room, empty save for a few chairs and a table. The woman looks distraught; she clutches a tissue in one hand, occasionally dabbing at her eyes, red from endlessly crying. The man hovers near her, but they do not touch. They stand in silence, occasionally interrupted by the woman's sniffles. As the door to the room opens, they both look up as a man in a uniform approaches them.

The uniformed man is hesitant to speak, as he is at a loss for words. The woman speaks without directly addressing the man. "Why would she do this? Why would she leave us like this?" Her voice cracks as she asks the questions.

The uniformed man is apprehensive; though he's gone through this countless times before, it never gets easier. "Well, ma'am, lots of teenagers make the same choices that your daughter did. Unfortunately it happens a lot more than we would like it to, but sometimes when their home life isn't stable…" He doesn't finish his sentence, as he hopes the woman will do it for him. He is wrong.

The woman doesn't seem to hear what he's saying. "Can you get her back? Can you bring her back home? We want her back home." The woman is distraught, and she holds on to any hope that she can. "She will come back to us, right?"

The uniformed man looks down. "Well, you know, we always try our best in these situations. But it's really not up to me, it's up to your daughter. But we will do our best to get her back to you." How many times has he made these same empty promises? He never did like giving families nonexistent hope, but it always seemed to be what they wanted to hear.

Back in Santa Carla

 _Looking up, she found the source of the sounds: four motorcycles, being driven by four guys who were clearly respected, or possibly feared, by the crowd._

She watched them curiously and intently, in the same manner she had been watching everything else around her for the past few hours. She found it impossible to think that she wouldn't remember such a group if she had encountered them before, mostly because everyone else clearly knew about them. But, as was becoming standard for her, her memory provided nothing. Nonetheless, she continued to watch them, as she quickly found them more interesting than the carousel she had been watching non-stop.

She watched as they slowed their bikes down as they reached the carousel, hooting and hollering in reply to each other. She could immediately see how close-knit the group of four was, as they easily shoved each other around, laughing in the process. She watched as they parked their bikes off to the side of the carousel, jumped in front of the line, and stepped on to the already-in-motion ride. The girl found herself completely fascinated by these boys, they seemed to have an energy that no one around them had, one that she was certainly missing.

So used to being the watchers, not the watched, the boys immediately felt the pair of eyes that followed them as they moved. It was an unusual feeling for them, to say the least, as most everyone else avoided watching them directly out of fear. As the boys slowly walked around the carousel, each one searched for the eyes that were watching them. It was David, always the most aware, who found them first. He locked eyes with the girl who was sitting alone on the bench, his gaze following hers even as the carousel turned him away. As the carousel slowed to a stop, David rounded up Marko, Paul, and Dwayne with a simple "Boys." He led them off the carousel, slowly and calculatingly, and sauntered toward the girl.

As the girl watched the group of boys approach her, she realized she had probably made a mistake. What had she been thinking, so blatantly watching the very group of boys everyone else made such an effort to avoid? To her credit, she didn't have a lot of experience to go off of in her state, but she told herself she should have known better regardless. As exhausted as she was, though, she realized she didn't care. Her situation was already hopeless; she had nothing else to lose.

As David led the march, Dwayne observed the girl. She was plainly dressed, in a t-shirt and jeans, and she was just sitting there watching them approach. He decided he liked her; he could relate to anyone who knew that sometimes observation was more powerful than speech or action.

The crowd parted for the boys as they approached the girl. David was intrigued; it wasn't every day that a stranger was so blatantly watching them. The group reached the bench, David standing closest to the girl with the other boys flanking him on either side.

"So." David said, smirking at the girl. "Care to tell us who are and why you're so interested in us?"

The girl couldn't help but laugh, eliciting weird looks from each of the boys. "That…" she paused to compose herself, "is a wonderful question that I myself am currently trying to answer."

David could do nothing but look at her. "Are you trying to say that you have no excuse for watching us, or do you expect me to believe that you have no idea who you are?" David was a bit annoyed, he didn't like it when humans were cryptic with him, that was his thing.

The girl sighed, and repeated the phrase that had been running through her mind all day. "I honestly have no idea who I am. Do you?"

"Do you think I would have asked you who you were if I already knew the answer?" David narrowed his eyes. "Are you on something right now, or are you always like this?"

"WHY does everyone keep asking me if I'm on drugs?" The girl huffed, standing up to face David. "I'm not on drugs! I just have no memory! I'm sure it happens! And you know what?" She jabbed her finger at David, "You are somehow less helpful than the seagulls I came across earlier, which I didn't think would be possible! Because the seagulls didn't even say anything to me!" She turned around and started to walk away, exasperated at how excessively unhelpful everyone in Santa Carla seemed to be.

"Did you hear that Marko?" Paul roared. "A girl who tried to talk to birds! She's perfect for you!"

"Shut up Paul!" Marko said as he punched Paul in the arm, though he couldn't help but laugh.

The girl ignored the comments being made about her as she tried to get through the crowd and away from the carousel. She didn't get far, however, as David shot the boys a look to get them to shut up before heading after the girl. It was clear she had some issues, but so did he and the boys, and pretty much everyone else in Santa Carla. And plus, it was always the odd ones who were the most exciting to chase; boring people gave up too easily.

Easily catching up, David blocked the girl from getting away. "Did I give any indication that I was done talking to you? Because I get to decide when I'm done with a conversation. You don't get to make that choice."

She narrowed her eyes at him, too exhausted to realize she shouldn't try to challenge him. "You asked a question that I couldn't answer if I wanted to. It seemed like the conversation had nowhere else to go. So yeah, I left, because you and your friends weren't being very helpful." She was rambling, but couldn't stop. "And you know what? I need to go figure something out because it's getting late, I have nowhere to go, and I'm in a strange city, alone and very lost."

David gave her a mischievous smile. "Well isn't that just a coincidence, you being lost in Santa Carla. I think it's time for a formal introduction." David gestured with his arms to where Marko, Paul, and Dwayne were standing not far behind. He pointed at each one individually. "That's Paul, Marko, and Dwayne." Turning back to face her, he said, "I'm David." He paused for effect; a little drama made things so much more fun. "And we are the Lost Boys."

 **I hope you liked it! If you did, leave me a review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi all! Sorry that it's been a few days since I updated, I had two midterms and two research papers to write, which was arguably less fun than updating this story. Happy reading!  
**

The girl let out an exasperated sigh. She didn't want coincidences or introductions; she wanted help! And this place, _Santa Carla,_ had proven to be full of the least helpful people. "Why on earth did I decide to come to this place?" she asked herself for the hundredth time. And why was this random guy not letting her walk away? Sure, she had been watching them, but she didn't know why that meant she had to listen to this guy talk. She realized that he was probably waiting for her to say something after his grand introduction, so she did. "Great. It's nice to meet you all; really, very special. You're much more interesting than the seagulls. Can I go now? I have an appointment to be confused somewhere else." Her voice was laced with annoyance, and although she knew being nice was usually the better option, these guys were annoying her, so she let it show.

"Looks like we've got a firecracker on our hands, boys!" Paul teased before David could reply.

"No, actually, I didn't _ask_ to be on your hands, so can I just leave?" She turned away, before turning around again. "I take that back, I'm not asking to leave, because I don't need permission, as much as you may think that you get to decide when conversations are over, I also get to make that choice. So, bye!" She turned back around, and really hoped they would just let her leave.

Before she could even take her first step away, David grabbed her arm. Not only was she odd, she was feisty, and the boys loved feisty girls. "No. Still not done with you." He growled. He could tell she was a stubborn one. As he slowly dragged her over to where the rest of the boys were standing at the edge of the crowd, he caught her scent for the first time. She almost smelled human, but not quite; something was off about her. He also realized that he couldn't get a firm hold on her thoughts, she seemed to only give off random snippets of what she was currently thinking, but he had no access to anything deeper. He pulled her so she was facing him, and stared her down. "There's something you're not telling me, and I don't like being lied to." He leaned in closer and breathed deeply, trying to assess what he was smelling, which also had the added benefit of freaking out the girl a bit.

What was he doing? This place was stranger than she thought. "Uh, will you… will you maybe take your hands off of me?" She averted his eyes as he watched her.

"You have a tendency to try to end conversations too soon, so the hands are staying on. And you didn't answer my question." David brusquely replied.

"I don't… you didn't ask a question? You just made a statement! And I already told you that I don't know anything about who I am or what I'm doing here, so, I really don't know what to tell you." The girl replied with as much confidence as she had, although it was quickly leaving her.

David was skeptical. There was something off about this girl, and the fact that she was being so secretive with him made him nervous. He didn't like other people on his territory; even if she was a rather small girl, he knew better than to underestimate what other people were capable of. Still keeping one hand on the girl, he turned to the others. "Looks like we have a guest for the night, boys!"

Paul cheered, Marko gave a little smile because guests always made things interesting, and Dwayne was characteristically silent.

"Who wants to take her?" David asked. He could tell the girl was intimidated by him, which wasn't anything out of the ordinary, so he wanted to see if one of the other boys could get her to open up.

Paul, ever the ladies man, spoke up first. "I'll take her!" He beamed as he reached out for her hand, which she didn't offer. David gave her a little nudge towards Paul, and he was able to get a hold on her left hand as the group headed towards their bikes. He leaned into her and whispered, "Don't worry, you'll be fine. Probably." He gave her a wink.

Nothing that was going on was making the girl feel better. While her day didn't necessarily start out great, she had a feeling that being abducted by four strange guys was not going to help her situation. Seeing as how her previous two attempts to get away had failed, she figured the best thing would be to play along before she could try to get away again. But what were they expecting from her? What did the one who kept asking her questions... she thought his name was David, but she hadn't really been paying attention when he introduced them all, what did he think she was lying about? She couldn't lie if she had wanted to, after all she really didn't know what was true about herself, except that she was here. Being abducted by boys. Although they weren't hard to look at, which helped. She hoped that attractive people weren't murderers, but she really had no idea. For all she knew, she could be a murderer! She hoped she hadn't been a murderer, but then she realized that if she _was_ a murderer, she might be able to get out of this situation. Granted, she didn't want to have to kill anyone, but she figured if she was a murderer, killing people would come easily. She stored those thoughts for later, in case she needed those certain skills she wasn't sure if she had.

Paul chuckled as he caught random parts of what she was thinking. She had proven that she had attitude, but the thought of her being able to take down the four of them was hilarious.

The girl shot him a look. "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing, just keep walking." He said as he tugged her along, walking the last few feet to where they had parked their bikes. Seeing as how she kept trying to escape, he decided he would ride with her in front of him, so he could keep her from trying to jump off. Plus, he would never pass up an opportunity to hold onto a girl, and he had to admit she wasn't too hard on the eyes. "Okay, hop on, and I'll get on behind you." He gave her a wink.

She returned his wink with a stare, and she didn't move. "I don't think I've ever been on a motorcycle before… Do I just climb on?" She had to admit she was nervous. She wasn't just being abducted, she was being abducted via motorcycle, which added an extra hint of danger to the situation in her eyes.

Paul laughed. "Nevermind." He said as he moved behind her and lifted her up by the waist. Moving slowly so as not to scare her, he lowered her onto his bike, and climbed on behind her. "Okay… girl." They would have to come up with a name for her if she refused to tell them herself. "Don't even think about trying to do anything. You can hold on to the handles, but don't think about trying to throw me off course. Things will only get worse for you if you do, okay?"

She laughed. Did he just call her girl? Nervous as she was, she had to admit that was pretty funny. She realized he was waiting for her to respond, so she nodded and uttered a semi-confident "Okay".

Paul nodded his head to the other boys to signal that he was ready, and they all took off towards the cave.

As they got farther from the boardwalk and closer to the cave, the girl realized she was in trouble. These boys seemed to be taking her towards some cliffs, and she couldn't come up with any positive scenarios that resulted in being alone with four boys by some isolated cliffs. While her mind ran through all the possible events that could unfold, she noticed that the group was slowing down.

After they brought their bikes to a halt, David glanced over to make sure that Paul still had the girl, though he knew she couldn't have gotten away if she had wanted. Satisfied that Paul was able to control her, David led the group down the steps to the cave.

Paul guided the girl down the steps, making sure she didn't stumble in the dark. She was thankful that these boys were at least friendly abductors, though maybe they liked to lull people into a false sense of security before doing them in. She shook her head to clear her thoughts; she needed to try to be positive, although there wasn't much hope for her to hold onto. She let herself be guided into a dark cave, though in her head she was incredulous that people in Santa Carla apparently inhabited caves. One of the boys who was not the bossy David grabbed a torch and started lighting big oil drums to illuminate the cave. As the darkness in the cave was chased away, the girl observed all of the furniture, knickknacks, and debris that were scattered around the cave. "They must actually live here…" she thought to herself, surprised that her initial suspicions had been right. To her relief, she didn't see any dead bodies or random body parts lying around, which made her feel slightly better about her situation. The tall blonde one who had been guiding her by her arm lead her to a couch and made her sit.

She looked around as each of the four boys took a seat in various places around her, their eyes never leaving her. She was sure each of them would be ready at any moment to grab her if she tried to run, so she tried to appease them by settling in to the couch. Silence hung in the air for what felt like minutes, but she hadn't quite yet figured out anything she could say that would make them let her go. She tried to find random objects to focus on so that she wouldn't have to make eye contact with any of the boys, but she soon gave up. She sighed, crossed her arms, and turned to David, "Now you've got me all to yourself, away from the crowds. Even if I tried to run, I wouldn't know where to go, so it looks like I'm stuck here. Can you at least tell me what you want from me?"

"Answers." David locked eyes with her. "I want answers, and I want you to give them to me of your own free will, but I have other means to get them if you want to go the difficult route." He smirked at her, and he could read on her face that it made her uncomfortable.

Uncrossing her arms, she took a deep breath in. She felt like she was a broken record. "I have no answers to give you. Trust me, I want answers too, from me _and_ from you. But I don't have any." She sighed, physically deflating at how empty she felt.

David narrowed his eyes are her. This girl was either stubborn, stupid, or both. "Well then, it looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way."

 **Hopefully you liked this chapter! If so, leave me a review so I know whether it's worth continuing or not!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi all! New chapter! I'm trying to write longer chapters because I know how they're much more fun to read. I'm glad a few of you like this story so far! Happy reading! :) Also I gave our leading lady a name, because she needed one eventually, and I know how repetitive it can get to keep reading "She" and "The girl".**

The girl sat on the couch as her captors stood off to the side whispering about something, and she could only guess that something was her.

"Maybe she's telling the truth." Dwayne offered. He wasn't as suspicious of the girl as David seemed to be, and as he caught random glimpses of her thoughts, he could appreciate that she was trying to take in the situation and analyze her options.

"And maybe she's not. We all know to never underestimate someone. Are you willing to let her live only for her to turn around and attack us?" David turned to glare at the girl. "And besides, we can't seem to get into her head."

"Look, man, she has no idea who she is. Did you not hear her thoughts? She was trying to figure out if she was a murderer and would be able to defend herself, but she has no idea! You can't get into her head because _there's nothing there!_ " Paul laughed. "I bet if you're nicer to her we can get her to open up a bit."

Marko smiled and added, "She did say she tried to have a conversation with birds earlier. Do you really think anyone who would do that is really a threat?"

David smirked. "You know what? You try it your way. You get her to open up, great. If not, we do this my way, and we all know my way is a lot more… interesting."

...

David leant against the wall as Paul, Marko, and Dwayne turned to face the girl. They decided to let Paul talk to her first, as he'd been the one she rode with on the way to the cave.

The girl watched him approach. It seemed they decided to take turns with her, and they sent the tall blonde over to her first; she figured it was because he had already tried to talk to her before. She narrowed her eyes at him, feeling very much like a young child they were trying to get answers from.

Paul ran his hands through his hair as he approached her, deciding to take a seat on the arm of the couch that she was on. He could sense her suspicion, so he tried to smile at her to make her feel safer. "So… girl."

Despite her uneasiness, she laughed. This was the second time he had called her "girl", and it was pretty hilarious considering her situation. She looked up at him and met his eyes. "Yes, guy?" She decided since she wasn't sure of his name, it was only fair to return the favor.

Paul laughed in response. He wasn't sure if she didn't know his name, or if he was just playing with him. "I'm Paul. Do you really not have a name, or are you intentionally not telling us?"

"Well, Paul" she said, making a mental note that she now knew who two out of the four boys were. "I'm sure that I have a name, but I can honestly say that I have no idea what it is, or what it might have been. I'm a blank book with nothing to tell you, so I don't know why I'm here. I have nothing for you." She sighed, once again feeling like a broken record.

Paul watched her, and he believed her… mostly. He wasn't sure how a person just appeared with no memories, but he didn't think that she appeared intending to harm him and the rest of the boys. It was getting a bit annoying calling her just "girl" though, so they'd have to think of a name for her if David intended on interrogating her. "Is there anything you can tell me that might help us out?"

The girl slumped into the couch. She felt empty and useless. "I only know two things. The first is that there's a scrap of paper in my pocket, but I'm not sure if I wrote it or not." She dug her hand into her pocket and pulled out the paper, which she unfolded and laid on the cushion next to her. "The second is that I have a watch, but it's frozen, so I have no idea what time it really is." She slipped her watch off of her wrist and placed it next to the piece of paper.

Paul bent down to pick up the piece of paper, and once he looked at it he saw that it only had three words on it. Glancing at the girl, he asked, "Why would you have a piece of paper that says 'I had to' on it? Are you sure you don't know what that means?"

The girl quickly snatched the paper out of his hands and turned it over, clearly confused. "I could have sworn this said something else before... Maybe I lost the other paper?" She checked her pockets again, but found they were empty. She put her head in her hands, trying to figure out what was going on. She was sure the paper had said something different earlier, but she couldn't remember what. Sighing, she handed the piece of paper back to Paul, who read it one more time before setting it back down on the couch.

Picking up her watch, Paul could see that it was silver with little opals decorating the band. He tried to wind the watch, but it seemed to be fully stuck at the same time. Looking back at the girl, he handed her the watch and piece of paper. "Well, you were right, this doesn't help much. But I think we've found a name for you… Opal!" He beamed at her; it wasn't every day he got to name someone.

"I wonder where you picked that name from!" The girl smirked as she put back on her watch and refolded the piece of paper to put away. "But sure, if you must name me, I'll take it. It's weird being called "girl" over and over anyway."

Paul cheered, thrilled that she didn't fight her over her name. He clapped his hands together and said, "Okay, Opal, I don't know about you, but I could really use a drink right now. This whole situation is making my head hurt." He jumped up and headed over to where they kept their booze. Paul could feel David's eyes on his back, and he knew that David wasn't happy that he was playing nice and not getting anywhere. Grabbing a bottle of whiskey and two cups, Paul headed back to the couch, this time choosing to sit on the cushion instead of the arm.

Opal looked over to where Paul was now sitting next to her. "Look, I'm really glad that you've decided to play nice with me, but I really don't see how alcohol could make my situation any better…"

"Alcohol can never make things worse!" Paul laughed. "Besides, it's not like you have any memories you can lose, right?" He opened the bottle and first poured a cup for Opal, and then one for himself. Satisfied that he had poured each of them enough, Paul capped the bottle and picked up a cup to hand to Opal.

As Paul held the cup in front of her, the smell of the alcohol hit Opal like a punch to her stomach. Physically recoiling, Opal jumped back in an attempt to escape the smell.

Startled by her reaction, Paul jerked his hand away, causing tiny droplets of alcohol to fly over to where Opal was sitting. He watched as the droplets touched her skin, causing it to burn and sizzle. Before he could process what was happening, Opal started screaming.

All she could think was, "What is happening?!" She could hear herself screaming, and she could see where her skin was starting to burn, but she felt completely dissociated from the experience. Her vision started to go grey, and she could hear the mayhem and confusion that was occurring in the cave, but she couldn't respond to it. All she saw was a haze of grey, and in the background, she heard a faint, high-pitched noise that she couldn't identify, but it sounded like ringing of some sort. She felt as if she was floating, and it was almost pleasant. Embracing the feeling of nothingness, she allowed her consciousness to drift for what felt like eternity. Suddenly, though, her gray haze started to shatter, and she could feel something trying to pull her away. She could feel her skin starting to prickle again, and she heard voices yelling, but she wasn't ready to leave the darkness.

...

David gripped the bottle of whiskey in one hand, holding it over the exposed skin of Opal's arm. He had the bottle tilted, as if he were ready to let the whole bottle pour over the unresponsive girl. His other hand gripped her arm, holding up the area that was now raw from where it had been previously burned. "Still think she's just a regular girl, Paul? Her skin is reacting like ours does to holy water, but this is just fucking alcohol! Who the fuck do you know has skin that burns because of fucking ALCOHOL?!" David growled. He was tempted to dump the whole bottle on her just for the sake of seeing what would happen, but he didn't; he was much more satisfied by the fact that he was right that this girl clearly had a secret. However, he didn't reveal his bluff to the other guys, as he gave them his signature icy stare.

The other boys were frozen, not sure what they could say that could possibly stop David from killing the girl. This was a development none of them had anticipated, and they had never quite encountered a situation like this before.

As David held the bottle almost horizontally over Opal's arm, a small drop of alcohol escaped and fell onto her skin. A new circle of red skin appeared among the previous ones as her skin sizzled. Paul winced, remembering a long ago encounter with holy water and how much it hurt.

...

Opal felt her grasp on the hazy darkness slipping as she once again felt a burning sensation. With a gasp, she opened her eyes only to find David standing over her with a bottle of alcohol ready to spill at any moment. Her resentment of him only seemed to increase with every interaction she had with him.

He glared down at her before giving her what she felt was a very fake, menacing smile. She blinked back at him, not really sure what he was doing. She realized he was gripping her arm that had angry red marks scattered across it. She tried yanking her arm back, but his grip held firm. Opal wasn't completely sure about what had happened to lead up to this moment, but as she caught a whiff of the alcohol being held above her, she grimaced. "Can you please let go of my arm? And maybe put that bottle away? It reeks, and it's making my head pound."

David gave a low laugh. Putting the bottle down, he yanked Opal up by the arm and dragged her over to the wall of the cave. He grabbed her throat and pinned her up against the wall with his right hand and leant against the wall with his left. "So… Opal. I'm not buying your little 'I have no memories and I'm so innocent' act. And I gave Paul a chance to try to break you, but all he ended up doing was revealing one of your weaknesses." He let his gaze fall down to the marks on her arm. "So you see, there are now three things about you that are off. You don't smell human. None of us can seem to get into your head past whatever random surface thoughts you have. And now, you seem to have a very severe, very unique allergy, to _alcohol._ Can you understand why I'm having trouble believing you, or do you need a few more marks on your arm to help jog your memory?"

The other guys stood uncomfortably as they watched David try to scare Opal. Paul felt a pang of guilt, the last thing he wanted to do was give David any more reasons to want to kill the girl, but his mistake seemed to do just that.

Opal shifted awkwardly under David's grasp. She was having a really hard time focusing on what was going on, as part of her still felt like she was in the same haze she hadn't wanted to leave. But she tried to process what he was saying, but it didn't really make sense to her. "Wait, what? I don't smell human? What does that even mean? And how would you know?" She tried to look at Paul for help, but David grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him.

David gave her a little smirk before he let his cool blue eyes flash to a bright orange. Staring her down, David laughed and said, "Well Opal, none of us are human. And apparently, neither are you. So for the last time I'm going to ask you, what the hell are you?"

 **Yay! Okay, so I'm sure any of you who are reading this are pretty confused right now, which is pretty much the point. And part of me feels bad that I'm being intentionally vague and non-explanatory in some parts, but then the other part wants to see what you all think is happening. Feel free to leave a review if you liked this chapter! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi all! Welcome back to my story! I ended the last chapter talking about how I was feeling guilty for being pretty vague, but that's a lie. I started writing this story mostly for myself, not really expecting anyone else to be interested in it, and I knew from the beginning how I wanted it to end. With that in mind, I will repeat what I said before and say that this is not going to be a happy story, as you may already be getting glimpses of. It deals with heavy topics, and I will try to include warnings in the future for when more things happen. I just hope that someone will like this story, and that you don't all hate me for writing it!**

 _Elsewhere_

A man and a woman, the same pair from before, sit in a dimly lit living room. The woman is on a couch, while the man sits in a chair; the distance between them is obvious.

"This is your fault you know, you're the one who left." The woman accused. They seemed to be going through this same cycle on a daily basis, but her heart was broken and she had nothing left to hold on to but the possibility of making the man feel miserable.

"I left because you pushed me away!" The man countered.

"I pushed you away because you shut me out a long time ago, and you know it. She would never have tried what she did if you hadn't screwed our marriage up. We would still have our daughter if you hadn't been such a terrible husband!" The woman wished she could cry, but she was sure there was no water left in her body to spare; all she seemed to do now was cry.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?" The man laughed bitterly. "A marriage takes two people to fail. You can't blame me because you sat back and did nothing for all of those years."

The woman resisted the urge to scream. This man had made her life miserable through years of a loveless marriage, and now she didn't even have her daughter left to live for. "Our daughter is gone because you were willing to walk away and not look back!"

"You think I wanted to leave? You think I wanted to have to live somewhere where she wasn't? I didn't! But I couldn't stand another minute of living with you! So I did what I had to do. It's not my fault our daughter made the choices she did." He sighed. Fighting was instinctual for them, it was the only way they knew how to communicate these days. "And you heard what that man said, that we might get our daughter back. He said there's a 15% chance she'll come back on her own. We have to believe that."

"Don't you dare say that number to me anymore! Our daughter is not a number, she's a person! Our daughter will never be just a statistic!" The woman cried out, unable to hold back her emotions.

"Will you stop being so dramatic? I never said our daughter was a statistic. I was just telling you what we were told before; I was trying to give you hope." The man stared at the wall as he spoke, unable to look at the woman who was trying to blame him for everything going wrong.

"You made our daughter a statistic! The second you left this house was the second she became the child of a divorce. You want to talk numbers?! 50% of marriages end in divorce! And now we're part of that 50%; we're a number just because you decided to shut me out all those years ago." The woman gripped one of the pillows that had been strewn across the couch. "We've lost our daughter forever, and it's all because of you."

"She might come back." The man tried to believe the words he was saying, but as each second, minute, hour passed, he knew they were farther away from getting their daughter back. Time was not on their side.

 _Santa Carla_

Opal actually had no idea what was going on. One of her abductors apparently liked her enough to give her a name, only for another one to turn around and try to kill her. And why was he accusing her of not being human? Clearly something was going on with him, orange eyes and all, but as far as she knew she was normal. But that was her problem, as far she knew didn't get her very far at all; she knew nothing. And now, he was trying to squeeze the life out of her, and she was tempted to let him. She had no idea why she was here; she regretted ever coming here in the first place, and everything felt wrong. Overwhelmed by everything that was going on, Opal wanted to crumple up and cry.

She knew that there was nothing she could say to David that would lessen his grip on her neck, so she stayed silent. It wasn't so much out of defiance, but she had no answers for his questions. She could see David getting more impatient as each second passed with no words coming out of her mouth. So when he sighed as if to pretend he was upset to have to punish her, Opal knew her time was up. Too quickly for Opal to try and stop him, David snapped her neck, and everything went black.

…

"The brat better wake up soon…" David muttered. Sure, it was his idea to bring her here, but he didn't know she'd pass out before he could interrogate her, and his ideal job was not waking up people gracefully.

Dwayne was unsuccessful in his attempts to carefully shake the girl awake. He ignored Paul's initial suggestion to try slapping her awake, but as the minutes passed, he gave it more consideration.

"What if we try throwing water on her, like in all those movies?" Paul piped up.

The other boys weren't sure whether or not to take Paul's latest suggestion seriously, but David quickly replied, "Paul, when was the last time anyone had a use for water in this cave?"

Paul was stumped, that was a good point. "There is a whole ocean of water outside, y'know!"

"We're not dumping another body in the ocean, Paul. We all know how that worked last time." David gave a pointed look.

"We don't have to _dump_ her in the ocean, just like, a light dunk, just to see if it'll wake her up…" Paul said with a sheepish grin.

As David glared at Paul, Dwayne tried propping Opal's head up with a pillow. As he was moving her, she took a rapid breath in and her eyes shot open.

"Oh look, Sleeping Beauty finally decided to grace us with her consciousness." David muttered as he moved from where he was standing against the wall to take a seat in his wheelchair.

Opal looked around with wide eyes and tried to suppress her urge to scream. The man who she was pretty sure had just killed her was now happy that she was awake? Although she was pretty sure he was being sarcastic, so maybe he wasn't happy. She had gotten the sense that he liked getting his way, so maybe he wasn't thrilled to still be dealing with her. None of this was really making sense to her though, and one of the boys was leaning over her and looking at her curiously.

"So are you finally going to start talking? Watching you sleep got boring fast. Paul even wanted to dump you in the ocean, you're lucky Dwayne got you to wake up before we let him go through with that." David watched her with an expressionless gaze.

So the previously hovering abductor was named Dwayne, she noted. As David was speaking, Dwayne had retreated and was now sitting on the other end of the couch. But Opal was confused, hadn't David already been unsatisfied that she hadn't given him any information? Why was he asking her again? And how did she avoid getting killed? As her mind tried to piece together the situation, she realized that nothing was making sense. She felt like she was not moving on a continuous timeline, but like someone had just pressed the restart button and she'd been dropped into a new scenario. The only coherent response she could form was, "How am I alive?"

David smirked. "I'm asking the same thing, sweetheart. I'd personally find it easier to just kill you, but the rest of the boys are curious enough about what got you here, so we're keeping you alive for now."

Opal gave David a confused look. "No, no. I mean, how am I alive again? You killed me after I couldn't answer your questions! Everything was black! And now you're saying I was just sleeping?!" She glanced around the cave to watch the other boys. Maybe they were trying to confuse her, or play a joke?

"I guarantee if I had killed you, you'd still be very dead right now." David narrowed his eyes at her. "We brought you to the cave, I tried to interrogate you but you passed out midway through it. Now you're awake. And still not answering questions. Why?"

Opal let out an exasperated squeak. "You're telling me that I fell asleep? I could have sworn it all happened…" She stood up from the couch and walked over to where David was, and examined him. "It felt so real… And right before you killed me, you looked at me with these orange eyes, and said you weren't human…" She couldn't quite remember everything that had happened, but she could still see those orange eyes.

David tilted his head and looked at her curiously. "So you do seem to know something after all! The question is, how do you know? Who told you what we are?"

After noticing that she was quite close to David, Opal backed away. "You told me! You told me right before you killed me. You said you weren't human, but you didn't say what you were." Not wanting to be put to "sleep" again, Opal stood by one of the walls, not wanting to be surrounded by the guys. "Do you all have those orange eyes?"

David made a motion for Paul to go over to Opal. Faster than she thought was possible, Paul was in front of her, grinning. "We're sorta a matched set." He looked up with her with orange eyes of his own.

Opal jumped back a little, pressing herself further into the wall. "So I'll take that as a yes then…" She took a deep breath in, trying to calm her nerves. So they all had orange eyes, but they hadn't explicitly said why yet. "So are you just all in the orange eyes club? What makes you not human?"

Paul stood in front of Opal, beaming. "Are you sure you wanna know, girly? We're a lot to handle."

Opal crossed her arms, deciding that she was already spiraling down a hole of weirdness and confusion, and she couldn't see how it could get worse. "Go ahead." Paul laughed, but suddenly his face changed. It seemed that every part of his face became sharper and more defined, and as he gave her a terrible smile, she noticed that his teeth had become very… sharp. Already backed up against the wall, Opal had nowhere to go, so she tried to keep her cool. She had managed to get herself abducted by vampires, which just seemed fitting for the way everything was going. In spite of her attempts, she laughed nervously. "So… you're all vampires then… That's, um, unique. You're not going to eat me, are you?"

"We only eat humans." David said coolly.

Opal whipped her head to look at David, only to find the blonde giving her an icy look. "So you think I'm not human? Why?" Looking away from David, Opal was relieved to find Paul's face had returned to normal. Feeling overwhelmed by the situation, she decided to walk back to the couch where she could sit down. She didn't have the willpower to fake confidence.

"It's your scent. To be fair, you smell almost human. But something's off." David watched the girl to see if he was surprised by what he was saying. "It's possible you're in a transition state of becoming something else. Could explain why you ran away and found yourself here. There something you're trying to get away from?"

"Yes." Opal's response caught her off-guard, she hadn't even finished taking in what David had said before the word slipped out of her mouth. But suddenly, she realized that there was something she was trying to escape, but she still didn't know what, and she was failing miserably. "Wow, it's like I'm in therapy." She gave a small laugh. "I don't even know where that came from. But you're right, I think I'm running from something." Opal looked up to meet David's eyes; she could sense the satisfaction he felt as he was able to get answers from her.

David smirked. "Good girl! That wasn't so hard, was it?" He was being mostly sarcastic, although he was getting the sense that Opal really didn't know much. Maybe the others were right, and she would open up more if he wasn't so intimidating and demanding. "I'm willing to accept this as a step in the right direction, Opal, and give you a break. And seeing as how our encounter with you cut our boardwalk festivities short, we never had the chance to pick up dinner."

All David had to do was glance at Marko before the curly-hair blonde was off in search of food.

 **Okay, so you may be confused thinking that I didn't remember what happened last chapter and why are things jumping around or repeating? But all of that will be revealed soon, and I've tried to include clues as to what is really occurring but I also don't want to make it obvious. Everything is intentional! If you are so confused and have any questions to ask, I will gladly answer them!**


End file.
